Satellite spots 122 objects in Malaysia jet search

PERTH, Australia
— A French satellite scanning the Indian Ocean for remnants of a
missing jetliner found a possible plane debris field containing 122
objects, a top Malaysian official said Wednesday, calling it "the most
credible lead that we have."

Defense
Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the objects were more than 2,500
kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Australia, in the area where a
desperate, multinational hunt has been going on since other satellites
detected possible jet debris.

Clouds
obscured the latest satellite images, but dozens of objects could be
seen in the gaps, ranging in length from one meter (yard) to 23 meters
(25 yards). Hishammuddin said some of them "appeared to be bright,
possibly indicating solid materials."

The
images were taken Sunday and relayed by French-based Airbus Defence and
Space, a division of Europe's Airbus Group; its businesses include the
operation of satellites and satellite communications.

Various
floating objects have been spotted by planes and satellites over the
last week, including on Wednesday, when the Australian Maritime Safety
Authority sent a tweet saying three more objects were seen. The
authority said two objects seen from a civil aircraft appeared to be
rope, and that a New Zealand military plane spotted a blue object.

None
of the objects were seen on a second pass, a frustration that has been
repeated several times in the hunt for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370,
missing since March 8 with 239 people aboard. It remains uncertain
whether any of the objects came from the plane; they could have come
from a cargo ship or something else.

"If
it is confirmed to be MH370, at least we can then we can move on to the
next phase of deep sea surveillance search," Hishammuddin said.

The
search resumed Wednesday after fierce winds and high waves forced crews
to take a break Tuesday. A total of 12 planes and five ships from the
United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand were
participating in the search, hoping to find even a single piece of the
jet that could offer tangible evidence of a crash and provide clues to
find the rest of the wreckage.

Malaysia
announced Monday that a mathematical analysis of the final known
satellite signals from the plane showed that it had crashed in the sea,
killing everyone on board.

The
new data greatly reduced the search zone, but it remains huge — an area
estimated at 1.6 million square kilometers (622,000 square miles),
about the size of Alaska.

"We're
throwing everything we have at this search," Australian Prime Minister
Tony Abbott told Nine Network television on Wednesday.

"This
is about the most inaccessible spot imaginable. It's thousands of
kilometers from anywhere," he later told Seven Network television. He
vowed that "we will do what we can to solve this riddle."

In
Beijing, some families held out a glimmer of hope their loved ones
might somehow have survived. About two-thirds of the missing were
Chinese, and their relatives have lashed out at Malaysia for essentially
declaring their family members dead without any physical evidence of
the plane's remains. Many also believe Malaysia has not been transparent
or swift in communicating information with them about the status of the
search.

Wang Chunjiang, whose brother was on the plane, said he felt "very conflicted."

"We
want to know the truth, but we are afraid the debris of the plane
should be found," he said while waiting at a hotel near the Beijing
airport for a meeting with Malaysian officials. "If they find debris,
then our last hope would be dashed. We will not have even the slightest
hope."

China,
which now has Chinese warships and an icebreaker in the search zone,
has been intent on supporting the interests of the Chinese relatives of
passengers, backing their demands for detailed information on how
Malaysia concluded the jet went down in the southern Indian Ocean.

That
also is the likely reason why Chinese authorities — normally extremely
wary of any spontaneous demonstrations that could undermine social
stability — permitted a rare protest Tuesday outside the Malaysian
embassy in Beijing, during which relatives chanted slogans, threw water
bottles and briefly tussled with police who kept them separated from a
swarm of journalists.

The
plane's bizarre disappearance shortly after it took off from Kuala
Lumpur en route to Beijing has proven to be one of the biggest mysteries
in aviation.

Investigators
have ruled out nothing so far — including mechanical or electrical
failure, hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental
health of the pilots or someone else on board.

The
search for the wreckage and the plane's flight data and cockpit voice
recorders will be a major challenge. It took two years to find the black
box from an Air France jet that went down in the Atlantic Ocean on a
flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in 2009, and searchers knew within
days where the crash site was.

There
is a race against the clock to find Flight 370's black boxes, whose
battery-powered "pinger" could stop sending signals within two weeks.
The batteries are designed to last at least a month.

On
Wednesday, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is
coordinating the southern search operation on Malaysia's behalf, said a
U.S. Towed Pinger Locator arrived in Perth along with Bluefin-21
underwater drone. The equipment will be fitted to the Australian naval
ship, the Ocean Shield, but AMSA could not say when they would be
deployed.

Various
pieces of floating objects have been spotted by planes and satellite,
but none have been retrieved or identified. Wednesday's search focused
on an 80,000 square kilometer (31,000 square miles) swath of ocean about
2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) southwest of Perth.

David
Ferreira, an oceanographer at the University of Reading in Britain,
said little is known about the detailed topography of the seabed in the
general area where the plane is believed to have crashed.

"We
know much more about the surface of the moon than we do about the ocean
floor in that part of the Indian Ocean," Ferreira said.

Kerry
Sieh, the director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said the
seafloor in the search area is relative flat, with dips and crevices
similar to that the part of the Atlantic Ocean where the Air France
wreckage was found.

He
believes any large pieces of the plane would likely stay put once they
have completely sunk. But recovering any part of the plane will be tough
because of the sheer depth of the ocean — much of it between about
3,000-4,500 meters (10,000-15,000 feet) in the search area — and
inhospitable conditions on the surface where intense winds and high
swells are common.

Australia's
Bureau of Meteorology warned that weather was expected to deteriorate
again Thursday with a cold front passing through the search area that
bring rain thunderstorms, low clouds and strong winds.

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.